THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512030061
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
Some Virginia Republicans wish Texas conservative Edward Blum would butt out.
Blum's organization, Campaign for a Color Blind America, is paying for a lawsuit in Virginia that challenges the boundaries of the black-majority 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Richmond to Norfolk.
Blum understands that if the lawsuit prevails, one of the biggest losers could be Virginia Republicans. ``If it hurts the Republican Party, so be it,'' Blum said.
The 3rd District lawsuit - patterned after a successful Supreme Court challenge in Georgia - has exposed a schism within Republican ranks.
Idealists like Blum are outspoken in their philosophical opposition to race-based districts that have boosted minority representation in Congress and state legislatures. Pragmatists dislike racial preferences, too, but realize that concentrating blacks in voting districts dilutes Democratic strength in adjacent areas.
Many Republicans are quietly rooting against the lawsuit, but few will stand up and be counted.
The 3rd District challenge puts Attorney General James S. Gilmore III in an awkward position with the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Defending the district's boundaries could make it appear that Gilmore defends the racial preferences implicit in the Voting Rights Act.
A spokesman said that Gilmore has not decided whether to defend the state or remove himself - as he did in a case in which the state opposed funding for a religious magazine at the University of Virginia.
The 3rd Congressional District's population is 64 percent black. To obtain this racial mix, the General Assembly cut a tortured swath across Southeastern Virginia. From Richmond, the district dips below the James River to snap up predominantly black precincts in Petersburg and Hopewell. It extends to South Hampton Roads, where the lines lasso selected neighborhoods in Norfolk, Suffolk and Portsmouth.
The district's representative, Rep. Robert C. Scott of Newport News, is the first African American from Virginia to serve in Congress since Reconstruction.
Robert Smith, a Norfolk Republican who is a plaintiff in the 3rd District lawsuit, believes the courts will uphold the boundaries. The General Assembly drew the lines based on incumbent protection, not race, he said.
Republicans concede that the district lines make Scott virtually invincible. But GOP pragmatists also note that the district may help them in the long run by bleaching the surrounding congressional districts.
Republicans say that concentrating black - and traditionally Democratic - voters in the 3rd District may one day help the GOP take control of the 2nd and 4th districts now represented by two Democrats, Owen Pickett of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and Norman Sisisky of Petersburg, respectively.
``I hope the lawsuit fails because we have a better shot the way things are when Pickett and Sisisky retire,'' said one Republican who asked not to be quoted by name.
The origins of black-majority districts date to 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act. Congress sought to counter historic patterns of discrimination that made it difficult for minorities to gain representation in statehouses and in Congress.
In Democratic state legislatures around the South, white lawmakers dealt black precincts like trump cards that would protect incumbent white Democrats. Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to outlaw district lines that lessened the opportunity of minority groups to ``elect representatives of their own.''
Under Republican President Bush, the U.S. Justice Department interpreted the amendment to require state legislatures to draw black-majority districts whenever possible.
``Was this for partisan reasons? You bet it was,'' said Del. Jay W. DeBoer, a Petersburg Democrat.
In 1991 redistricting battles, Virginia Republicans recognized the Voting Rights Act as an opportunity for gains in the Democrat-controlled General Assembly.
The GOP formed an unlikely alliance with the all-Democrat Black Legislative Caucus.
Both sides achieved their goals:
African Americans will make up 10 percent of the 1996 General Assembly, up from 7 percent before redistricting.
Republicans have pulled even with Democrats in the Senate and have come within three seats of a majority in the House of Delegates.
Many of the GOP gains have come against senior white Democrats who lost large numbers of blacks to minority districts.
Analysts say that the creation of black-majority districts was a major factor in the defeat last month of Hunter B. Andrews of Hampton, the powerful dean of the state Senate. Andrews was considered safe in his old district with a 37 percent black population. But he became vulnerable when redistricting left him with a 15 percent minority district. Andrews squeaked by a no-name Republican in 1991, but then succumbed this year to a well-funded GOP member of the Newport News City Council.
Smith, the plaintiff, said he is committed to fighting the notion that African Americans cannot win legislative seats.
``Is it still necessary for someone to stack the deck in black people's favor? I don't think it is. It cheapens the accomplishment,'' said Smith, who works as a customer service representative for a local finance company.
Smith said he fears that his son will grow up in a world where minority accomplishments are ``marginalized'' by set-aside programs.
``This kind of attitude perpetuates this perception about blacks in general, and I don't want my son stigmatized,'' he said.
Smith and fellow plaintiff Don Moon of Hampton filed the 3rd District challenge after the Coalition for a Color Blind America, based in Texas, agreed to commit at least $1 million to the fight.
``I searched two years and two months for the money to file this lawsuit,'' said Moon, who is chairman of the 3rd District GOP committee.
The lawsuit seeks to take advantage of a recent Supreme Court action that invalidated a congressional district in Georgia drawn using race as a predominant factor. The 5-4 decision repudiated the Bush Justice Department's interpretation of the Voting Rights Act but stopped short of providing states with guidelines for drawing districts aimed at increasingly minority representation.
``It was like an earlier case on obscenity,'' said David Bositis, senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank. ``The court said, `We can't tell you what is obscene, but we will tell you when we see it.' ''
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in similar cases from North Carolina and Texas. It is unclear how long it will take the Virginia case, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, to work its way to the Supreme Court. A victory by the plaintiffs could require the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts.
Blum, a Houston stockbroker, said the 3rd District challenge may be only the beginning. The next step would be to challenge Virginia's state legislative districts.
Blum said he doesn't care that many Republicans fear the lawsuit, if successful, could reverse some GOP gains in the General Assembly.
``Segregating neighborhoods based on race hurts everyone,'' Blum said. ``The (partisan) consequences of having fair districts doesn't concern me at all.'' ILLUSTRATION: Map
THIRD DISTRICT
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN PARTY VIRGINIA 3RD DISTRICT
LAWSUIT by CNB